Chargers Report: After tepid season, Chambers is catching on

“No one remembers what you did in the regular season,” he said, smiling. “This is the time right here.”

This was the most trying season of Chambers' eight in the NFL.

“I had some frustrating weeks there,” he said.

In his encore season after being one of the Chargers' saviors in 2007, Chambers battled through a midseason ankle injury, and he caught 19 fewer passes than ever before.

“You work and work all week, you go deep in the game, that's rough,” Chambers said. “I don't consider myself an average receiver.”

Chambers, who was fourth on the team with 33 receptions for 462 yards, has kept mostly quiet about his unhappiness. He talked of it once in a postgame interview and only rarely lamented to receivers coach Charlie Joiner.

“I kept quiet,” Chambers said. “I don't talk to Philip (Rivers) about it. He knows. He's got a lot of receivers to throw to. . . . If we were winning, it would be OK. But we kept losing.”

Chambers' declining numbers had to do with the number of weapons on offense, the emergence of Malcom Floyd, the injury that kept him out for two games and hobbled him for another few and a move inside when Buster Davis was placed on injured reserve.

After catching one pass for 2 yards against Atlanta and no passes against Oakland in successive weeks – a career first – Chambers re-emerged as at least someone Rivers can count on.

With Antonio Gates trying to play through a high ankle sprain, a saving grace for the Chargers entering tonight's playoff game against Indianapolis is that Rivers and Chambers have started to hook up again and Floyd will play for the first time since suffering a collapsed lung at Kansas City last month.

Chambers has seven catches over the past three games, and five have been for first downs. He was the team's leading receiver (three catches, 50 yards) against Denver last week.

“Now that I'm getting back in a rhythm, seeing more balls on game day, I'm feeling a lot better,” Chambers said. “Statistically, this was the poorest season I've ever had, by far. I'm putting it behind me.”

Sproles show

There are bigger issues – such as what the Chargers will do at a couple of positions on the offensive line – but perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the team's offseason will be what they do with yet another stellar backup running back.

A year after Michael Turner left for big bucks in Atlanta, Darren Sproles is due to be an unrestricted free agent this spring, which means tonight could be his last game as a Charger.

Sproles said this week he was focused solely on tonight's game, in which he will likely play a large role with LaDainian Tomlinson nursing a strained groin.

Sproles has said his desire is to stay in San Diego, but it is also likely he will test the market. There are bound to be at least a couple of teams willing to give Sproles a bigger role in their offense than the Chargers, which means they will offer more money.